Tag Archives: ambassador

Binc Co-Ambassador Ann Patchett and John Rubin from Above the Treeline

While in Minneapolis for Winter Institute 12 the Binc board and staff hosted a celebratory dinner in honor of long-standing supporters, including Binc Co-Ambassador Ann Patchett.

To celebrate the progress made over the past five years friends of the Foundation from across the industry gathered at Union Rooftop for an evening of gratitude and thanks. Many who have helped the Foundation from day-one were honored, including:

The American Booksellers Association
Oren, the board of directors and the entire staff have helped raise awareness of Binc in additional to providing financial support.

Regional Book Association Executive Directors
This dedicated and fierce group not only helped raise awareness but have continued to ask how they can help. Many thanks to Eileen, Brian, Laura, Andrea, Calvin, Steve, Carrie and Binc board members Wanda and Deb.

Ingram Content Group
From the very first event in 2012 to their expanded support in 2016 Ingram Content Group has been on our side. We cannot thank them enough for their support these past five years, and for being our top corporate donor in 2016.

Shelf Awareness
Their very generous in-kind donations have expanded awareness of Binc throughout the country and the book industry. 21% of booksellers first learned about Binc from Shelf Awareness.

Mike McKnight – Basil Bookseller Software
Because of Mike’s request we created a new category of donors, the corporate sustaining donor. Basil Bookseller Software became Binc’s first corporate sustaining donor. Thank you!

Christine Curry – A Novel Experience
We are grateful to Christine for signing up to be the first sustaining store donor. Yay, A Novel Experience!

Book, Inc
Several Northern California bookstores were recognized for their long-standing support. Books Inc. was recognized as the first bookstore in the country to offer employees the option to donate to the Foundation through payroll deduction. And Books, Inc. is also the first in the country to match employee donations dollar-for-dollar up to $100 per employee.

And Copperfield’s Books was recognized for not only being a sustaining monthly donor but also for offering donations via payroll deduction. In addition, Copperfield’s has the most employees donating to Binc through payroll deduction.

Literati Bookstore
In our hometown, we send our thanks to Hilary, Mike and all the book ninjas at Literati. They held the first bookstore fundraising event to benefit the Foundation by donating 50% of their sales to celebrate their one-year anniversary.

Village Books – Chuck Robinson
Chuck took to the roads and included the Foundation as one of the charities to benefit from his 2015 bike adventure across the U.S. Chuck and his supporters donated $9,550 and through 2015 was the single largest fundraising effort for Binc.

Sourcebooks
Our friends at Sourcebooks become the first publisher to match their employee’s donations dollar-for-dollar. Many thanks to Sean Murray for leading the effort and energizing the team at Sourcebooks to repeat their generosity for two years.

Above the Treeline
They were the first to contribute digital ad space in-kind and maintain the top spot for click-through rate on both the Binc Scholarship Program and the annual Campaign-to-Sustain.

HarperCollins
We would not have made the progress we have over the past five years without the support of Harper Sales rep Kate McCune. She is not only the first publisher sales rep to serve on the Binc board of directors but also the first sales rep advocate. And Kate introduced Ann Patchett to Binc!

Parnassus Books
In 2016, the Parnassus team came together to help out one of their own and created the Bank on Booksellers auction. The event was so successful that they were able to help Steph and also booksellers across the country with the new largest single donation to Binc of $18,001! Thank you does not begin to convey how much their generosity has helped booksellers.

Ann Patchett – Binc Co-Ambassador
Our inaugural ambassador has shared her time, expertise, connections and generously donated to Binc. She has whole-heartedly embraced the Foundation’s mission to help improve the lives of booksellers. The course of the Foundation has changed because of her support.

Pam French, Binc Executive Director says, “Our book industry friends have led the way in the effort for Binc to become sustainable. Their support has allowed the Foundation to help 168 families over the past five years with $332,000 in emergency grants. I cannot thank them enough!”

If you would like to get involved, get your store signed up as a sustaining donor or join the
payroll deduction program, click here for the simple instructions. Or you can contact Kathy Bartson at 734-471-0201 or kathy@bincfoundation.org.

Welcome to Part 2 of Binc’s 2016 year in review. You can read Part 1 here.

Co-Ambassadors Come On-board

In August we received the best 20th anniversary present we could have ever asked for. Board member, and HarperCollins sales rep, Kate McCune worked her magic and brought author, and Parnassus Books co-owner Ann Patchetton board as Binc’s Ambassador. Ann, in turn, asked her friend and colleague author James Patterson to act as Co-ambassador and he accepted! With their combined support, our Co-Ambassadors continue to introduce Binc and our mission to book industry professionals across the country. By increasing awareness of Binc and our mission, our Co-Ambassadors have gotten us on the radar of even more booksellers in need across the country leading to an increase in assistance requests, grants awarded and using their influence, to help generate philanthropic revenue for the Foundation. We are beyond thrilled to have Ann Patchett and James Patterson support our mission to help booksellers in need.

#BankonBooksellers Piggy Bank Auction

In September, Ambassador Patchett’s bookstore, Parnassus Books, held a fundraiser to support their bookseller, Stephanie. Stephanie had been diagnosed with breast cancer forcing her to stop working at the store to undergo treatment. The employees of Parnassus wanted to do something to help Stephanie through treatment, to give her time to heal and financial resources to pay her bills. They reached out to many of their famous friends with an idea to decorate piggy banks and sell them as a fundraiser for Steph, and got back more than 100 piggy banks decorated by authors, artists and celebrities! The BankOnBooksellers auction was off and running! The fundraiser was going so well, that Stephanie wanted to give to other booksellers in need, so Parnassus decided to donate part of the proceeds to Binc! Ambassador Patchett sent us this video, announcing that we would be receiving part of the proceeds

We were beyond grateful at the generosity not only of the Parnassus staff but of the authors, artists and celebrities who created the works of art for the auction! Thank you all! Book People are the Best People.

Regional Fall Trade Show Travel

As the piggy bank auction ended, the Binc staff and board were busy traveling to the Regional Fall trade shows across the country. We started at SIBA in Savannah, GA. Next it was NEIBA in Providence, RI. We then traveled to PNBA in Tacoma, WA. Heartland Fall Forum took us to Minneapolis, MN. In Denver, Co we attended the MPIBA show. Next we went to the NAIBA show in Baltimore, MD. The SCIBA show was held in North Hollywood. Last, but not least, NCIBA wrapped up the season in San Francisco, CA.

The fall regional trade shows are all packed full of great author talks, conversations with booksellers, store owners, publishers and distributors. We love seeing old friends and meeting new ones. We can’t thank the Executive Directors of the regional bookseller’s associations enough for welcoming us at the shows and for supporting us through the year. We appreciate everything you do to help!

Borders Reunion – Party with a Purpose

During our 20th year we wanted to make sure we celebrated and thanked all of our supporters including those who helped to create the Foundation. On October 23rd, Borders alumni, former Borders Group Foundation members and current Binc supporters gathered for an afternoon to catch up, reminisce, and write notes to Foundation friends past and present. Binc’s #1 volunteer, Toni McGinn checked everyone’s badges at the door, just like old times. Bill Edwards and Judy Banker performed on stage for everyone and there was a silent auction for baskets filled with Borders memorabilia, independent bookstore goodies and other book swag. A great time was had by all and attendees wrote over 100 notes to Binc supporters. Many thanks to our volunteer event planning committee Jennifer Hawkins, Judey Kalchik, Mark Brown, Jeanne Joesten and Barbara Kinzer for their time and effort in coordinating and running the celebration!

Bluffton Book Festival

Throughout 2016, Binc Board of Directors member, and Rock Inked, Inc.founder, Rockelle Henderson, worked diligently to create a book festival in her hometown of Bluffton, SC. On November 18th and 19th, the Inaugural Bluffton Book Festival was held to benefit the community and all the book lovers in the Bluffton area. The event featured author talks, book signings, food, drinks, live music, read-alouds for children, raffles and more. Part of the proceeds of this fun event were donated to Binc! Kudos to Rockelle and the BBF event volunteers for your hard work in getting this fantastic event off the ground! We’re looking forward to next year!

YEA Fundraising goal met!

The Binc Foundation continues to move toward becoming an industry sustained organization helping booksellers in need. Thanks to many industry partners, bookstores, and individuals for helping us exceed our fundraising goal for 2016. Our goal was to reach $100,000 – thanks to you we raised $125,000!

Some highlights and special thank you’s go to our Co-ambassadors Ann Patchett and James Patterson. Their work is raising the awareness of Binc and this is good for all booksellers.

Also, notable was the $10,000 gift we received from Ingram Content Group in honor of their business clients. This was a remarkable gift!

Sourcebooks generously offered to match their employees donations for the second year.

We were provided with not one but two matching gift challenges to boost our year end “Think Binc” campaign. Thanks to all of our board members for giving a little “extra gift”. Our second matching gift challenge “Pay it Forward” was created by a very grateful past grant recipient and her partner. They wanted to give back and pat it forward so other booksellers could be helped. Both challenges helped to raise over $14,000!

Thank You!

Thank you to everyone that made 2016 such a successful year for Binc. From our board to our donors or our industry supporters to the booksellers that we are here to help, we are not able to fully express our sincere gratitude for your support and effort in helping us fulfill our mission to make the book industry stronger. We can’t wait to see what exciting things 2017 will bring and we are inspired and ready to work even harder to help book people.

The year was 1996, when a group of Borders booksellers had a dream of helping their colleagues in need. Their idea was simple, collect small donations from a large number of booksellers and make those funds available to a coworker facing a personal financial hardship. The donors wouldn’t miss the $5 or $10 a month that they donated, but added together, these funds could pool together to change someone’s life in a very meaningful way.

Kit enjoyed spending time with the booksellers from Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association recently in Denver. It all began with a brief presentation at their annual membership meeting, letting the booksellers know that their support (financial and moral) is making a difference in the lives of their colleagues across the country. A hearty thank you to Laura Ayrey and her board of directors for allowing Binc this valuable platform.

Are you a publisher’s sales rep, sidelines provider, author, or a book lover who regularly visits bookstores?

If you are, you can help Binc spread the word to booksellers about the assistance available from the Foundation. In the past three years, our staff, board & committee members, and supporters have personally visited more than100 bookstores. We can use your help reaching even more bookstores across the country! We know for a fact that a personal visit to a bookstore improves the odds that their employees will take advantage of our services. We realize that the help we provide can seem like it is too-good-to-be-true, that is where corroboration by a real person comes in to play. The value of having our message reinforced by publishers, industry representatives, authors and supporters is priceless.

It is a beautiful thing that has naturally developed over the years through the eyes of marketing-marketing to support causes! Not only have common causes been supported through marketing, but many causes have actually been developed by marketers.

Clearly the booksellers who responded to the Marketing Survey want the Foundation to continue and they want to do their part to help Binc thrive. Providing booksellers with simple ways to connect with Binc was a recurring theme. Here are a few suggestions, just click on one to get started.

We know that the best way to engage booksellers in Binc’s mission is with stories of actual cases, putting a human face on the Foundation. To this end we thank grant recipients like Clarey Rudd and Sarah Eschelmanfor sharing their stories with other booksellers. Leaving a review of Binc on GuideStar is also a great way to connect real people to the assistance Binc provides. If you have a story or a comment, please share it on our GuideStar page.

THE most important service you can perform to further the reach of Binc is to tell every bookseller you know about the Foundation. The majority of our grant applications come to us because a friend or colleague has made a referral.

When traveling the country and visiting bookstores, the words we still hear too often are “I have never heard of Binc.” After we explain about the Foundation and the services we offer, the look of amazement is a joy to behold. We want all booksellers to know that they have a safety net in times of personal crisis. Our goal is to have Binc Foundation information in every bookstore in the country, have their staff become familiar with the Foundation services and know how to take advantage of them.